Over 3,000 dentists in England have stopped offering NHS care in England over the last three years, and the number of qualified dentists from the EU coming to the UK has halved, worsening the crisis.
Everyone should be able to access an NHS dentist if they need one. Instead, people across our area are faced with a stark choice between expensive private care and no care at all. This has to change.
We believe urgent reform of the NHS contract is required to ensure that the dentists that we already have deliver NHS services.
In summer 2023, the last dentist supplying NHS services in Romiley withdrew them. Many other dentists across the whole of the constituency have already withdrawn from supplying NHS services. Let us know if you have had a problem getting an NHS dentist.
Our policy to fix NHS dental services is to reform the NHS dental services contract and to increase funding to pay for it.
The new NHS contract should:
We also propose
Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart has demanded action from the Government over “insurmountable” blocks on dentists wanting to work in the area, caused by their “Certificate of Sponsorship” Scheme.
MP Lisa Smart has written to Health Minister Karin Smyth following the news that closures at Buxton Hospital have seen patients redirected to Stepping Hill, putting even more pressure on the hospital.
Funding the desperately long backlog of repairs at Stepping Hill Hospital must feature in the Government’s Spring Statement, said local MP Lisa Smart, after she wrote to the Chancellor and Health Secretary ahead of the Government’s Spring Statement.
After meeting with Age UK to hear about their corridor care campaign, local MP Lisa Smart has called again for the Government to address the critical problems which are resulting in hundreds of people waiting in corridors for treatment in Stepping Hill.
MP Lisa Smart has said that delivery on changes to special educational needs (SEND) provision is key, after Schools Minister Georgia Gould met with Greater Manchester MPs and parents to hear their concerns.
The desperate shortfall in resources to allow the local mental health trust to carry out autism and ADHD assessments was laid bare by local MP Lisa Smart in parliament – at current rates it would take at least 12 years to clear the waiting list.